Ph up which is better

Which is better for raising PH in a soil medium potassium carbonate or potassium hydroxide and why?

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General Hydroponics PH UP.


Think the correct answer is both

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The General Hydroponics bottle I have is only the carbonate version. Many of us use the GH product. I don’t know that you will find anyone here in the forum that can debate one product over another.

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Thank you

The pieces of sheepskin in a box somewhere says I have a degree or two in this stuff. :rofl:

Potassium Bicarbonate (K2CO3) buffers against pH changes.

Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) is an outright strong, bad ass, base and is paired with another soluable salt or organic acid to be used as a bufferring agent.

I would want that buffering ability of K2CO3. Easy to overshoot that desired pH endpoint with a strong base like KOH.

I spent a bit of time on the bench doing titrations determining the “buffering” ability of soils/waters (alkalinity).

Done being a chemist for the day - that hurt my brain. Going to run errands and meet at local ILGM grower at the cannacon (@Bonjoyle )

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Ooooonly because I’ve bought so much sxxx that I don’t use, and rarely do I need to raise my pH, I’ll use a pinch of baking soda. I haven’t had to raise it (if it lands a little low, I just let it sit for a day or so and it drifts up) in months, though. I use Jacks nutes and if it falls too low, now, I know I mixed too much or too little of something and start over. It’s cheap. Having said all that, if it is a common thing when you mix, I’d go with pH Up.

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@Borderryan22 Excellent information! I have small bottle with a dropper of the silicon solution I have (high pH) to use if ever needed.

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Dolomite lime is great for getting ur ph correct in ur soil

@Borderryan22 growing in soil or coco?

Soil. Did a coco run with CannaCoco bricks, 3 - 3 gallons. I had to lower pH then. Used citric acid crystals. But it was just too dxxx much watering lol. I have a 32x32 and packed it.

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Are you feeding with jacks every time in soil? Every watering my ppm coming in under 1000 so i have to feed seems like a waste of time to try and do plain watering

Ya, I feed every time. I use filtered tap (rv filter on hose bib outside, like $20 on Amazon) and mix 5 gallon batches using:

15ml Silica Blast
19g Part A
5.5g Epsom
10.5g Part B
1.5 tsp Fox Farm boosters

This lands my first feed at roughly 1100/6.35. I get 3 feedings per bucket. By the next feed, pH is about 6.45. And by last feed closer to 6.6. I get almost a quart of runoff per gallon of feed. When i get to the first feed from the next bucket, the runoff is usually in the 6.4-.6 range and ppms between 1000-1200.

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How many plants

I have 2 in 3 gallon bags. A 5 gallon bucket of Jack’s last me roughly 5-6 days.

I’m running 8 5gal pots …i don’t know how people can run coco coir and water daily without auto pots

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That’s what I’m saying! Lol. What really sucked for me is that I had to take the plants out to feed them. Every. Dxxx. Day. Well. Almost every day. There was a “fxxx this” day here and there. Until I get an autopot system, it’s soil for me. I have an unopened box of coco bricks.

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Haven’t made the switch yet maybe next year

That’s awesome bro. :ok_hand: